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• Criteria for selecting talks include the topic's value and relevance to the community, the presenter's expertise and comfort level with the talk, and the potential interest from attendees |
• The review process is intentionally set up to be blind to prevent favoritism or bias towards certain topics or speakers |
• Proposals are reviewed by a committee of diverse perspectives to ensure consensus on what topics are interesting and valuable |
• Talks that are too vague or lack sufficient detail may not be selected |
• Topics that have been covered extensively in the past should offer new insights or perspectives, rather than simply rehashing previous talks |
• Technologies that are trendy but lack substance may not be given priority |
• The review process is challenging to do at scale, and providing feedback to all submitters can be difficult. |
• Submitting talks to GopherCon and being selected |
• Getting involved with GopherCon beyond speaking, including review committees and mentorship programs |
• Community involvement and finding new blood for future leadership |
• The history and values of GopherCon, focusing on community-first approach |
• Upcoming in-person GopherCon event in Chicago, post-pandemic adjustments |
• Discussion about the importance of community and connection at conferences |
• Personal anecdotes from Erik St. Martin and Johnny Boursiquot about their experiences with the Go community |
• Concerns about maintaining a welcoming and inclusive environment for new members |
• Importance of having clear codes of conduct and rules in place to ensure safety and inclusivity |
• Discussion about the growth and evolution of the Go community, including the transition to a more diverse and widespread community |
• Decision-making process behind moving GopherCon from Florida |
• Importance of being an ally and taking a stand against harmful laws and environments |
• Challenges of navigating contracts and logistics when making decisions about conference locations |
• Value of in-person conferences versus virtual attendance and hybrid models |
• Risks and complexities involved in advocating for community values through actions |
• Desire for human connection and community |
• Unpopular opinions on Brooklyn-style pizza vs Chicago-style pizza |
• Criticism of traditional job interview questions and the pressure to fit in with a company's values |
• Discussion of privilege and taking risks in one's career choices |
• Emphasis on individual autonomy and accountability in making life decisions |
**Angelica Hill:** Hello, and welcome to Go Time! Today we are going to be talking about GopherCon. We're going to talk a little bit about kind of where did GopherCon come from, how is it put together every year... We'll be hearing about some of the logistics, the difficulties, the challenges, but also some of the fun ... |
**Erik St. Martin:** Thanks. I'm glad to be here. |
**Angelica Hill:** How are you doing? |
**Erik St. Martin:** I'm doing pretty good. Yeah, I'm actually happy to be on. I miss hanging out with all of you on air. |
**Angelica Hill:** I'm so excited. This is I think the first time I've hung out with you on air, so I'm excited. Oh, and then Johnny... He's my wonderful co-host... He's "Oh, fine. I'll leave you two to it. I don't want to interrupt this beautiful moment." \[laughs\] And he's back! Awesome. Great. Welcome back, Johnny.... |
**Erik St. Martin:** Johnny's "Oh, it's Erik. I'm outta here..." \[laughter\] |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** I'm outta here... |
**Angelica Hill:** Well, welcome. I'm excited. I haven't co-hosted a show with you in a while. How are you doing? |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** It's been a while. I'm doing great, and I'm actually looking forward to this episode as well, because I'm one of the GopherCon OGs, as you'd say. I was at the very first one, and I think I've been in most of them, maybe for one, but we'll pretend that's not true. |
**Angelica Hill:** Well, lovely to have you both as a co-host on the show, but also as a co-chair of this conference, as well as being on the Organizing Committee. So we're going to start right at the very basics for all our lovely newbie gophers... What is GopherCon, and how did it first become a thing? |
**Erik St. Martin:** Yeah, so it's interesting... We've talked about this before on (I think) Go Time and Changelog as well... It came around as a really interesting story. At the time, Brian Ketelsen and I worked together at a company; this is 2011 or so... And we were both using Go, and we were attending lots of conf... |
It was really interesting, because we were hoping to just get, 100-200 people together. At the time, we didn't know how many gophers there were; the language was still super-new... And so we planned to hopefully get like two or three hundred people together, and then it just sort of exploded from there. We had to keep ... |
\[08:15\] It was really a humbling experience though too, like the number of sponsors who came on... And same thing, they just wanted a conference for this technology too, and so many of them weren't even worried about ROI at the time. They're just "The ROI is a Go conference starting, right? We need to hire people, we... |
Then like all of these people that we really admired in the Go community were there helping us stuff bags, swag bags... It turns out stuffing 750 swag bags takes a long time. Who knew...? So yeah, it was just really interesting to have -- I'm trying to even remember... Steve Francia, Bill Kennedy, Damian Gryski, Dave C... |
And the same is true about MC-ing, right? At the time, Brian and I were running around just putting out fires, because there's so much stuff that happens behind the scenes that people don't even know, and like things that you need to manage while you're on site... And so we'd be like putting out a fire and then running... |
I think that all of that probably sparked the atmosphere that exists there today, where we care more about the community than anything else, and everybody just sort of contributing to it being a great time. |
**Angelica Hill:** So how has it evolved? The image I'm getting in my brain of you kind of scrapping this together, wonderful gophers helping in any way they can, to like the very put-together, huge conference that it is today... I would love to hear what are the big evolutions, what are the big changes that you've see... |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** So Erik, before you answer that, as an attendee to the first one, I can tell you what my experience was... So I'm sitting probably like in the first or second row, and basically, I was there with my friend, Mark Bates, who's also a prominent member of the community... And we're sitting in like th... |
**Erik St. Martin:** \[12:00\] Yeah, so it's kind of funny... There's always like the magic that happens behind the scenes. You're right, it was a very, very early technology then. April 2014 is when the very first GopherCon was held, and so we're talking pre-Docker, pre-Kubernetes, like all of these big technologies..... |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** Nice... |
**Erik St. Martin:** That's kind of a funny story there. But yeah, so all of these big technologies that we look at that are written in Go, most of these hadn't really taken off yet, or hadn't even been released. So it was still very, very early. But as an example of things that happen behind the scenes that people are... |
And so we get down there in the morning, and the escalator just keeps coming. More people, more people. And there's like one of those "Oh, crap" moments. So many people had chosen to stay for the next day, just as part of the conference... And you look at each other and you're like "We're going to have to feed these pe... |
But yeah, I think that with the first year there was a lot that wasn't thought about as far as the viability of it as, for lack of a better term, business. Because though it's not a for-profit company or whatever, bills have to be paid, right? And so you can't just sort of go in and be like "Oh, yeah..." And one of the... |
And so there was a lot of evolution that had to go in there, with budgets, and how are these things going to be paid, and how do we account for the prices of these things going up over time, how do we account for things like attrition... Most people don't realize this, but when you book these hotels to account for ever... |
\[15:56\] So there's that side of things, thinking about those... But then the two other ways I'd say that things kind of evolve was one, the vision of like a high production value, right? I always love the idea of people feeling like they've made it. People who speak to thousands of people, you want them to kind of fe... |
The other was I took off a month of work before that event, for all of the stuff that had to just be done... And there was so much work that was being done at night after work, and things like that. And so realizing that long-term, there was no way that we could manage that; not while having day jobs. And so this is wh... |
The first year we had worked with them as a local contact; they were referred to us by the hotel, our planner at the hotel, for the ancillary events. So we wanted to do kind of like an offset party, and like a dinner for the speakers, and things like that... So that's how we first came in contact with their company. |
And going into 2015 - that's where that relationship started to build even more, and they came in and help with a lot more of the logistics side of things, negotiating hotel contracts, and things like that. Managing travel, and working with the convention center, and all of that stuff, figuring out what we needed for i... |
So this really -- an event, once you get to this size, is a year-round effort, and I have a full-time job. There is no way that I'd be able to work all of this stuff full-time. I'm really grateful for that relationship, and most of you have met her over the years, and her amazing team that helps us with so many aspects... |
**Break:** \[19:08\] |
**Angelica Hill:** So we've heard a little bit about kind of the logistics, putting together an event... But of course, GopherCon would be nothing without its participants and its amazing speakers... So we'd love to hear a little bit about how do we get these amazing, wonderful people on stage? I know, Johnny, you've b... |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** So there's two sides to this... And having been a speaker, and now being part of basically the people who get to decide who the speakers are going to be, these are very different things... So I'll tell you from a speaker's standpoint - even submitting a talk right is a terrifying process. \[laugh... |
\[22:05\] So it's a very scary proposition for a lot of people, and basically, this is me giving a shout-out to you - if you've ever submitted a proposal to GopherCon, even if you didn't get accepted, kudos to you, because we know it can be a very stressful process. And for those who have been accepted and have given t... |
**Erik St. Martin:** And let's be clear here, too - the tutorial sessions and stuff like that are more about being able to go more in depth, having more time; it's much more specific, so you can drill in. But those rooms aren't small either, right? Pre-pandemic, you're talking 450-500 people. That's not a small talk... |
**Johnny Boursiquot:** That's the size of another conference. \[laughs\] Exactly. But the thing is, we have this process... So moving on now to the sort of selection process. It's always a combination of what is something that -- basically, the value threshold was always high for us. It's "Is somebody going to do this ... |
For example, we've heard so many talks on gRPC, that this year in our selection process we're like "Ahh..." Yeah, we have a couple more gRPC submissions, but there's nothing in there that's sort of really new; there's not going to be new ground covered, so we might sort of basically deprioritize those in order to give ... |
It's always about what is the value that we want the community to derive out of this conference when they walk away from it, and we want that to be as high as possible. All the machinations that goes on behind the scenes, between the coordination, just getting all of us in the same room at the same time, scheduling-wis... |
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